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Smallridge Solutions support Seiche Measurements Ltd’s IT needs delivering quality IT services in the areas of providing Remote Access, Laptop Optimisation, Server Support, and building a 21st century network
Laptop Optimisation
Seiche Measurements Ltd install and configure scores of laptops for use alongside their Passive Acoustic Monitoring solutions for the Oil Industry. All laptops are similarly installed and configured by hand.
With our knowledge of system cloning, and how to manage multiple different hardware configurations, we were able to optimise this process cutting the install time for a laptop from nearly a whole day to 30 minutes per system - and guaranteeing the systems were truly configured the same.
We believe in providing solutions, so these same skills were transferred to internal staff through a series of training sessions resulting in significant savings as they performed themselves the system cloning
Server Support
Like many companies, Seiche’s main server was installed and configured by a former company and left unserviced for several years, the company learning to live with the network performance issues and glitches that accumulated with time.
With our knowledge of Windows Servers it was easy to understand the current configuration and resolve these problems onsite and additionally, with the client’s permission, to configure the server to allow remote administration so that many issues can be fixed remotely for occasions when the issue is small and does not merit a site visit.
A 21st Century Network
Seiche Measurements moved into a pair of large building in Bradworthy that had a data and voice network from the 20th Century - 10 Mbps Cat 3 and thin-net cabling, and over 20 internal BT phone lines - hardly suited to their role as developers of leading-edge solutions for the oil industry.
Step 1 - Wire the building
Due to architectural constraints of the buildings, a single central switch was not possible unlike Exelgen Discovery. Instead the buildings were linked with aggregated copper trunks (currently running at 2Gbps) and wall-outlets patched into patch panels and switches in each building.
Over 40 wall-outlets were installed and linked with over 800 metres of Cat 6e cable capable of running at 10Gbps.
Step 2 - A segregated network
Seiche needed to segregate their network:
1) To allow visitors and guests access to the internet and some internal server locations
2) To optimise throughput for Voice Over IP (VOIP) telephony
This was accomplished with a core switch, 2 ancillary switches, and a distribution switch in the smaller building. Trunked VLANs, with 802.1p were routed by a Cisco 2600 series dual-nic intervlan router. Three Cisco ADSL routers linked the network to the Internet - to segregate the voice and data traffic. Six Linksys/Cisco wireless routers were installed through the buildings to provide WPA2-secured wireless access.
All network services were provided by either the Core router, or the ISP - as the server had reliability problems.
Step 3 - 21st Century Phones
When you have broadband why would anyone chose conventional telephony instead of VOIP ?
According to Seiche’s needs a 10 phone extension package was chosen, installed and configured with an Internet Telephony Service Provider (ITSP) with a £22 per month package that provided:
- Multiple incoming/outgoing lines
- Free national and international calls
- Answer-phone, voicemail, and emailed voicemail messages
- Access to the phone system from remote offices, anywhere in the world
- Hunt groups, internal and external redirects, and multiple line presences.
Step 4 - Move in
With a complete, robust infrastructure built, the move from their previous premises was complete in a day. The phones were redirected, and all email and web facilities are internet hosted, so no change was needed.
The computers, printers, and the server were just plugged-in and it worked.
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